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Blue Index was a broker in ' contracts for difference' or bets
on short-term movements in share prices. Its last reported annual
revenues were £2.3million, with profits of £123,000.

The suspects were arrested in May in a series of dawn raids in
London and Essex and the firm was closed down. Originally, six people -
five men and one woman - were arrested, but the unidentified 'fifth
man' was not charged yesterday.

The others embroiled in the FSA crackdown were former employee
Adam Buck, a close associate of James Sanders, who has been implicated
in one insider dealing offence.

James Swallow, the other co-owner, faces three charges related to trading ahead of three separate takeover bid announcements.

All five have been bailed by City of London police to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates Court on December 20.

The watchdog, which gained the power to prosecute insider
dealing cases in the criminal courts in 2001, is keen to show it is
getting tough on white collar crime.

It won a high profile victory this year in the largest case it
has brought to date for abusing inside information when Malcolm
Calvert, formerly head of market making at the Queen's stock broker
Cazenove, was sentenced at Southwark crown court to 21 months in jail.

The FSA is currently prosecuting 11 other individuals for
insider trading, for which the maximum penalty is seven years in
prison.

A verdict in one case, that of Neil Rollins, a former senior
manager at PM Group - an AIM listed firm that makes systems for
weighing lorry loads - is expected this week.

Seven City professionals who were arrested in March in a
separate FSA attempt to smash a 'sophisticated and long-running insider
dealing ring' are on bail and are still under investigation.